A Medical Doctor at the Accra Psychiatric Hospital, Victor Ogoe has shockingly revealed that people are not patronising the hospital because of the purpose it was built for.

 Dr. Ogoe explained that people avoid coming to the facility because it was built to serve as an asylum before converted into a psychiatric hospital.

“For Accra Psychiatric Hospital, the infrastructure is just not okay for Psychiatric health; just imagine seeking help from a place that was build to serve as an asylum”, he stated.

According to him, all psychiatric health facilities in the country need a facelift to serve its purpose. This will help the fight to normalise mental health to enable people to feel comfortable visiting such facilities.

Speaking on mental health and its related issues with Benjamin Akakpo on Joy Prime on Wednesday, he said, people feel reluctant to visit the facility because of the fear of the stigma they face when seen in such a place.

He urged Ghanaians to treat people with mental health challenges with dignity because they are medical conditions that can happen to anyone hence the need to end the stigma and the isolation of such people just because they visited a health centre to seek help.

“We need to normalise psycho-social conditions to drive people to seek help from psychological issues”, he added.

As a way of normalising mental health, the Accra Psychiatric hospital has launched a free call-in mental screening and counseling program where people can call to speak to a doctor, nurse, or psychologist on all mental health issues at no cost. 

He reiterated that it’s time for people to patronise the social help the facility is giving as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility devoid of the stigma because of visiting the facility.